This week Australia is painted red with extreme andd prolonged heat. Victoria anticipates its hottest December day ever. Bushfires have raged and ravaged drought stricken New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. Climate Emergency was chosen by Oxford Languages as the word of the year. The winning word ‘is judged to reflect the ethos, mood, […]
Main Content
Port & South
Transformation
Port Places is devoted to stories of the transformation of places of the lower Yarra – from streets and parks to Fishermans Bend, the biggest urban renewal area in Australia. The imperative for transformation at every scale and in every facet of society and the economy has been given added urgency by the climate emergency. […]
Docklands
Souvenir
Small smaller smallest is an endearing exhibition at the Emerald Hill Heritage Centre in South Melbourne. People living in Port Phillip were invited ‘to share treasured miniatures, knick knacks and ornaments’ for an exhibition for Seniors Week. Stories as tender as new asparagus were told at the exhibition opening. Those small, inanimate objects on display […]
Yarra & Bay
Before the storm
Low tide, wide beach polystyrene disaggregates fishermen wait
Port of Melbourne
Another anniversary
Cars, planes and now ships: Some anniversaries are so significant because of their unfolding ramifications they are worth recording even though the date has passed. In March 1969, Melbourne’s first container dock was completed, in time for the arrival of the first container ship in April. The container revolution was on the horizon from the […]
Southbank
Spring Cleaning The City
No rest for the committed. The day after the Global Climate Strike, it was the second Spring Clean the City. The gathering place was Queensbridge Square on the Southbank Promenade. Not so much a successful public square as an intersection of spaces that are moved through rather than lingered in. Even though the Red Stair […]
Urban planning
Folly and Modesty
21 Alfred St, Port Melbourne I believe that Grand Design aired the episode that featured this house recently. This is the post I wrote about it five years ago, on 21 August 2014. H House in Port Melbourne was featured in The Age on Saturday 16 August. It’s tucked away in a corner of Port […]
Waste – waste warriors, activists & artists
Transformation
Port Places is devoted to stories of the transformation of places of the lower Yarra – from streets and parks to Fishermans Bend, the biggest urban renewal area in Australia. The imperative for transformation at every scale and in every facet of society and the economy has been given added urgency by the climate emergency. […]
People making change
The reporting season
In a cycle more predictable than the erratic seasons, community organisations account to their members at the annual general meeting. Since the annual meeting must be held within five months of the end of the financial year, usually 30 June, the latter half of the year is thick with AGMs. Every association is guided by […]